


Open Your Eyes (Waking Up)

by Krasimer



Series: Falling Off An Edge (Looking As You Leap) [7]
Category: LazyTown
Genre: Dad Robbie Rotten, Fae & Fairies, Fae Glanni Glæpur, Fae Robbie Rotten, M/M, Magic, Magic Robbie Rotten, Minor Robbie Rotten/Sportacus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-17
Updated: 2019-02-17
Packaged: 2019-10-30 14:44:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17830538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Krasimer/pseuds/Krasimer
Summary: She came out of the machine like she was sleeping.A little girl, made out of a music box.





	Open Your Eyes (Waking Up)

It was like waking up after sleeping.

Her hands were stiff, like they were still porcelain, and when she opened her eyes, they felt heavy. Around her was the room she’d woken up in the first time, full of machines and clothes, pieces of a life she had been curious about before but never asked.

She knew her name, now.

Ella.

Her name was Ella.

She loved dancing – that was what she had always done, would always do – and she remembered an interesting girl with pink hair. They had danced together, almost. The only thing that confused her about everything was that she had woken up again.

The man had explained why she needed to go back to sleep. Magic could not be done and be left done, sometimes. Things had to either wear off or be put to rights.

And she had been a music box.

He had brought her to life in the first place and then, when things had settled down, he had carefully explained to her why she needed to go back to sleep. To being unaware and lost in the silence. She had agreed with it, had allowed it, because she had felt like there was a timer counting down on her anyway. Something following her, keeping her from living a life like anyone else.

She had not been meant for living, not like the rest of the children.

A noise off to her side made her turn her head and when she looked, he was there. He looked almost the same as he had before, except that the darkness under his eyes was almost gone. He looked…

Happier.

“Hello Ella,” he smiled and held out a hand to help her down from the platform she stood on. “How are you today?”

“Very well,” she surprised herself when her words actually came out of her mouth. They hadn’t done that before. “I’m awake.” She paused, studying his face, then looked around the room. “Why?”

His hands fluttered before settling on her shoulders, a smaller smile on his face. “Because every little girl deserves to be awake if they want to be,” he said. “And because there are people I want you to meet. Because you have friends, out here, and they went through something traumatic. They need kindness and friendship right now.” He almost said something else but she cut him off by leaning in and wrapping her arms around him.

Ella smiled and pulled away, looking up at him. “Should I go play?” she asked.

“Yes,” he nodded, taking one of her hands. “I think you should.” He led her over to a tube and gestured for her to go up it.

When she got to the top of it and clambered out, he followed her. They stood outside of the hatch together, him fussing over their clothes for a moment. “I need to clean that out…” he muttered, brushing the dust off the hem of her dress. “But, important things first.”

“Yes?”

“Do you see this area here?” he pointed at the hatch, then moved to the back of what hid it from view. “This is where you should go if you want to hide away from anyone for a while. The billboard has cows on the other side and it is one of the only billboards in town. We’re working on fixing things, on putting the town right again, but for now…” he chuckled. “Ella, do you understand?”

She thought about it for a moment, then nodded. “This is home,” she told him. “When it is time for dinner and for sleep, I return to here.”

“Good,” he took her hand again. “My grandfather is in town, right now. Do you want to meet him?” he waited for a second, then frowned. “Or do you want to go play with the others, first? My grandfather is a lot to deal with, all at once.”

Ella tucked herself closer to her father’s side, swinging their joined hands and smiling. “Can I meet my great-grandfather?”

He stopped for a moment, eyes wide and sound choking out of his throat, before he nodded. “Of course you can,” he told her. His eyes were suspiciously wet-looking and Ella smiled even bigger at that. This was her father. Her father had a grandfather. This was her home, this was her town, these were her people, and she had friends that she would meet and play with.

With a laugh, she tugged him with her while she skipped away from their home.

 

X

 

Glanni waited in the park with Íþróttaálfurinn, both of them sitting on a bench and watching over the children.

Tryggvi was not too far away, actually playing with them.

“This is going to take some getting used to,” Glanni muttered. “So many heroes in one little town, so many villains willing to settle and help their heroes recover and recuperate.” He turned to Íþróttaálfurinn and grinned, feeling something vicious flash for a moment before he stamped down on it. “And you’re here with me.”

“The others can help themselves,” Íþróttaálfurinn smiled back at him, scooting himself closer by a few inches. “Just as well – there is someone I need to see to the recovery of.”

Glanni rolled his eyes. “And who is that?”

One of Íþróttaálfurinn’s hands moved to his hair, scratching gently at his scalp and tugging softly at the short strands. “Someone I should have stayed with, a long time ago. Someone I can stay with now.” His smile shifted, warmer and softer and it made the part of Glanni that feared commitment and permanence shriek a warning.

Another part of him, sad and shivering and alone for too long, shifted to the fore and begged for closeness and permanence and something besides a too-long loneliness. “Why,” Glanni ignored both parts of himself for now. “Whatever will dear Aðalbjörg think?”

“Aðalbjörg has given me her blessing and her permission,” Íþróttaálfurinn pulled Glanni a little closer, so that their voices could be quieter and not carry as far. “A year of testing the waters. She and I married after so little time, arranged and happy enough for it. Some have called it a perfect match, but…” he shook his head. “Perfect is not always what is wanted.”

“Why _not_?” Glanni made a face, meeting Íþróttaálfurinn’s eyes. “Perfect is perfect.”

“And my wife has stated that she wants to try other ways of being happy,” Íþróttaálfurinn sighed, a soft noise that made Glanni’s heart clench. “She gave me permission because she knew that my heart is halfway belonging to another.”

Glanni snorted. “And who’s the lucky—”

He stopped.

Íþróttaálfurinn’s eyes were bright and hopeful as they stared at him, his lips twisted into a small smile. His entire body was relaxed, calm and unwilling to fight.

“ _Oh._ ” Glanni blinked a couple of times. It was hard to draw a breath, hard to actually make his body respond to him, and his hands were shaking. The sad, shivering, lonesome part of him, the part that had always regretted letting Íþróttaálfurinn go, surged to the fore again. The part of him that had, it seemed, held a torch for a time when he had actually always been happy.

“Would it help if you got permission from her as well?” Íþróttaálfurinn’s smile quirked up a little more, teasing a little.

Actually…

“Yes.” Glanni nodded slowly. “Yes, it would. I need to speak with her.”

“We will arrange that,” Íþróttaálfurinn chuckled, a deep noise that Glanni had actually managed to miss in the time they were apart. “But for now, your grandson is here.”

Glanni turned and saw Einar approaching, a little girl with black hair at his side and holding his hand. She looked about the same age as the pink girl, the one currently talking to Tryggvi. She held herself like she was used to dancing, her dark purple dress swishing around her as she moved.

His heart stopped in his chest for a moment.

Einar had told him about the machine he’d used to bring the music box to life, had shown him the schematics and the prototypes and the results on things that would come out as inanimate. Glanni had been told of the little girl that had come out of the music box, a dancing girl named Ella, short for Rottenella. Einar had explained that she’d come out with a windup key on the back of her.

He didn’t see one, now.

Ella skipped to keep up with Einar’s long strides, managing to keep pace with what was as good as her father. When she saw him, she turned to Einar and seemed to ask him something.

When Einar nodded, she detached from him and skipped over to the bench, stopping in front of Glanni and Íþróttaálfurinn. “Hello, great-grandfather!” she smiled at him and he saw a spark of mischief in her eyes, the same way every member of his family was. Without a doubt, she was Einar’s child, no matter that she was not a biological result.

“Oh, you are a clever one, aren’t you?” Glanni laughed. “Look at you, a little Glæpur, through and through.”

Íþróttaálfurinn leaned forward, offering his hand to her. “I am Hero Number One,” he said, smiling. “Íþróttaálfurinn.” He positively _beamed_ when she took his hand and shook it, curtsying at the same time. “You are a very interesting person.”

“I am Ella,” she told him, nodding once like she was confirming how it sounded to her. “My father is his grandson,” she pointed her chin at Glanni. “So I suppose I am his great-granddaughter. Is that how it works?” she took her hand back and clasped both of them together in the folds of her skirt. She was a clockwork being with a dash of living flesh – she would, eventually, if left to it, grow older like the other children. Einar had changed how much magic was involved in bringing her to life.

Glanni could feel it.

“That is how it works,” he told her. “I am Glanni, and if you just want to call me your grandfather to shorten the title, you may.”

Einar, having walked up behind her, seemed to loosen up when he heard that. He had been, it appeared, nervous as to how his daughter would be accepted by those who had never met her before. “Do you want to go and play, Ella?” he put a hand on her shoulder, gesturing towards the other children. “Your friends are here.”

Ella’s small smile widened into a grin and she threw her arms around him in a quick hug before she scurried away, towards the pink girl and the girl with the three tails on her head.

For how much stress Glanni had seen Einar carry around, his grandson seemed so much more at ease these days.

**Author's Note:**

> Robbie has a _daughter_ now. This story isn't over, don't worry! I just had to fight with a broken external hard drive to get it back on track.


End file.
